Brighton & Hove CCG reduce the strain on A&E by promoting realtime, localised information about alternatives to A&E for non-urgent conditions
The “Great Choices Make Heroes” campaign was designed to encourage public understanding and awareness of urgent care alternatives to A&E for non-emergency conditions.
Working in partnership with a specialist communications consultancy and local digital development agency, miggle, NHS Brighton and Hove saw the number of inappropriate presentations at A&E reduce by 7% in two months following the campaign’s launch.
The campaign included a public communications and engagement initiative that promoted self-care and appropriate use of urgent care services. With local celebrity and politician endorsement the campaign received regional TV, radio and press coverage and took its message to shopping centres, schools and workplaces for maximum impact. The message was delivered digitally via websites and social media as well as gaining additional traction via out of home advertising (OOH), GP surgeries, pharmacies, restaurants and other community groups.
A key technology behind the campaign is a mobile-first website aimed at ensuring city residents know where to go for real time help and advice by signposting them to local NHS and voluntary sector health and wellbeing services thus reducing strain on A&E. (by making the right choice and freeing up space in A&E you become a hero)
The http://www.wecouldbeheroes.nhs.uk/ microsite supports the campaign by providing real time, localised information that enables people seeking non-emergency care to choose appropriate services based on their location and the time of day/night.
Alick Mighall, miggle’s founder and managing director explains “At miggle, as a business that provides online solutions to the NHS, we are always thinking about what economies of scale we can deliver to help ease the pressure. What we build should provide a platform for communications teams to educate the residents for whom they serve. And it should be delivered in the most cost-effective way possible. The We Could be Heroes micro site is technology at its best – simple but effective. It is quite simply a prioritised list of services based on the service you are looking for depending on the time of day and your location. There is demonstrable evidence of its effectiveness and it can be easily re-purposed for other regions’ CCGs simply by localising the design and content”
“we are strongly in favour of repurposing our technology to assist the NHS and are keen to talk with other CCGs, CSUs and trusts to demonstrate how technology can help to meet the demands of strategic transformation planning”
Key Outcomes from the campaign included:
- 6 months’ TV, radio, print and online media coverage with a combined audience reach of 14.5 million
- An increase of visitors to www.wecouldbeheroes.nhs.uk from just under 1k in 2013/14 to just under 10k
- A #ChoicesMakeHeroes social media campaign endorsed by local politicians, celebrities, businesses and journalists
- Face-to-face engagement with 40,000 shoppers, commuters, visitors and residents in city centre locations
- A bespoke school assembly program that reached over 2000 primary school children, their teachers and families
During the course of the campaign, patient data showed the following trends:
- The number of walk-in A&E attendances in Brighton that didn’t require hospital admission or follow-up treatment fell by just under 7% during November 2014 and March 2015 compared to the same period during the previous year.
- There was a 2% year-on-year increase in the number of visits to the Brighton Station walk-in centre.
- There was a 14% year-on-year increase in calls to NHS 111 from patients registered with a Brighton & Hove GP.
Providing savings and cost efficiencies
Since working with Brighton and Hove CCG miggle have consistently strived to deliver economies of scale and ensure their solutions are cost effective and can be re-purposed. The microsite miggle built to support the Great Choices make Heroes campaign shares a code base with another initiative that was developed for Brighton and Hove CCG, their public facing sites and staff/GP extranets (miggle have made the code behind the public part of this site freely available under an open source licence – for more information visit https://blog.miggle.co.uk/free-NHS-website-at-beta).
To find out more about how miggle can help your CCG, CSU or Trust call Alick, Emma or Karolina on 01273 675220 or email info@miggle.co.uk
